The Season of Change Starts

March is here and it seems that all the weather has changed.  The sun is in a different position regarding my living room window.  It can be -22 when I get up at 6:00 a.m.  By late morning the temperature is now in the teens.  The snow on the roof is melting steadily.  Snow on the ground is melting until about 4:00.  Then it gets that granular quality as it starts to freeze again.  Soon it will be covered by an inch of new snow.

It’s hard to believe that all of this can happen in just a day but it does.  The change will occur for several days in a row.  Then we will have just melting.  The snow shrinks.  The ice starts to turn gray.  Now it is time for serious melting.  The warm weather of late March feels like summer temperatures.  When these same temperatures hit us in May, it feels like winter is back.  It is why these months are unpredictable and always changing.

Meanwhile my thoughts are turning to planting the garden.  Can I grow just 3 cabbages?  That is really all we can eat.  And which kind of tomatoes should I try this year.  My goal is to just get a reasonable bunch of delicious, home-grown tomatoes with that vine-ripened flavor.  Green beans seem to be solved.  Blue Lake have worked really well that last two years.  Oh but let’s not forget about beets.  Also Yukon Gold potatoes do really well here too (baked ones are for dinner tonight).  Yellow onions were great.  We ate every one.  There is plenty of time to day dream about the garden.  I usually don’t plant until June 1^st so everything is protected from a late frost.

Back to what is outside my window today –pine martins are here almost every day.  I think there are about 3-4 living around our house.  Even with their distinctive markings I still can’t really decide how many are around.  One thing is for sure -- they love sunflower seeds.  They also love any bones or scraps from the dining room table.

Two days ago there was an otter hanging around.  Between our house and the lake is a small valley and then a little ridge.  You can’t see the lake but it is just on the other side of the ridge.  I was upstairs and spotted the otter on the little ridge.  They really are beautiful and graceful animals.

There has also been a few rabbit tracks in the snow.  Those we can do without.  Two years ago we started some green beans in the house.  I planted them in the garden and we left for two days for our granddaughter’s high school graduation.  When we came home, a rabbit had eaten every leaf off the plants.

Birds have also started to come home.  Right now the purple finches are all over.  Soon we will have lots of colorful birds.  The spring is when there seems to be a great variety of birds just flying all over.  There will be new ones to spot every week.

So we are in the season of change.  I’m ready for it.